


Reflections

by yeen_meteor



Category: Persona 4 Arena - Fandom, Persona Series
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:28:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22651018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeen_meteor/pseuds/yeen_meteor
Summary: Sho hasn't been seen for a few months since the end of the P-1 Climax. To Labrys' surprise, it's not Sho, but Minazuki who finally breaks the silence and appears. And it's not her he's looking for - well, notthis'her', anyway.
Relationships: Shadow Labrys & Minazuki Sho
Comments: 3
Kudos: 40





	Reflections

With the door of her room at the inn closed behind her, Labrys was happy to finally be able to take off her jacket and leggings and toss them aside, revealing her solid metal limbs for what they were. She herself wasn’t too concerned about staying concealed, but Mitsuru had insisted it’d be a lot less of a headache for her people if there wasn’t an obvious robot just wandering around in plain sight in Inaba. The extra clothes were a bit of a pain, though, and left her running just a bit too warm, the lack of airflow making her cooling system just a bit too inefficient. The t-shirt and skirt were much more comfortable on their own.

It had been a nice little vacation so far. Most of the Shadow Operatives’ work for the past few weeks had been stuff Labrys wasn’t exactly equipped to handle - mostly paperwork, investigations, and dealing with Public Safety being up to their usual BS - so she was free to take some time to catch up with some old friends. Back during Golden Week, she’d had hardly any time to actually spend with her friends from Inaba. Well, at least, she hadn’t had time where the focus wasn’t on fighting for their lives. It was a very welcome change of pace to finally get the chance to just chill and hang out.

 _Maybe it might be worthwhile after all to try to go to school here, just for one year,_ she thought to herself. _It’ll just be Rise, Naoto and Kanji, next year, but hey! It’ll be great to hang around them more! And there’ll be plenty’a new people around to meet, too!_

With a slight smile, she dropped onto the futon and relaxed, letting all her coordination and balance processes shut off just for a little bit. Switching to low-power mode, she let the cool night breeze wash over her, taking all that excess heat away - 

_Wait. Breeze? Back door’s closed, though, ain’t it?_

She sat back up and looked over to the door that led outside. It was, indeed, wide open, letting in a gentle wind.

Had someone snuck in? She whirled around and took stock of the room. The TV hadn’t been stolen, her suitcase was still there and looked like it hadn’t been touched… What else… Wait…

The guitar case in the corner of the room was sitting open and empty. The one she’d brought her axe in.

_Oh no..._

Her heart sank. She had a really bad feeling about this. She ran outside without stopping to dress herself again, scanning the area for any sign of her weapon as she picked a random direction and started sprinting. _Who in their right mind just up and swipes an 80-pound battleaxe? It’s not just some random punk, that’s for sure… Someone knows I’m here, and they ain’t a fan…_

Her run took her away from the inn, away from the hot springs and into a forest, a good distance away from any human eyes and ears. There, she found her high-tech battleaxe leaned against a random tree, almost casually.

Somehow, she didn’t think it’d be as easy as just walking over there to pick it up. But what was the meaning of this?

“Alright, I’m sure you think this prank of yours is real clever’,” Labrys shouted out into the darkness, sounding confident, but taking careful, slow steps towards the axe. “But I think you’re in need of a hard lesson on respecting people’s property.” She mentally checked the fuel levels in her wrist rockets. Chain Knuckle primed and ready. “You come out now, and I’ll take it a lil’ easier on ya. Keep hiding, though, and you ain’t gonna be walkin’ outta here with a pretty face.”

She took one more step, and reached out, launching her bulky red forearm out of its socket and grabbing hold of the axehandle from 25 feet away. Before she could reel her arm back by its chain, though, someone fell from the treetop and landed in front of her, severing the chain in an instant, and the arm with it. The axe fell to the ground, almost lazily. The hand’s grip tensed and its rockets flared, but it couldn’t do much more than that.

The man standing before her had short, messy red hair, an X-shaped scar on his face, a Yaso High jacket tied around his waist, and a stern, cold stare in his eyes. He was almost expressionless, if not for the eyes’ cold fire. He had one sword in the ground, next to Labrys’ broken chain, and the other sword pointed straight at Labrys’ neck.

Labrys almost fell backwards in surprise, and gasped. She felt her Plume pulsing and resonating. “Sho-kun? No, wait, Minazuki-kun?”

Minazuki didn’t say a word, and just stared for a moment. Labrys stuttered a bit as she struggled to come up with some kind of response. “W-what are you-”

Minazuki leapt at her and rammed his knee into her chest, knocking her down to the ground. Labrys was down on the grass with a boot planted firmly on her neck before her mind even had the chance to catch up.

Of course, the pressure on her throat didn’t exactly impair her speech like it would a human’s. “What the hell is the meaning of this? What do you want?” She demanded. Minazuki’s face shifted into a slight, stern scowl, with just a hint of frustration in his eyes.

It was silent for a moment. Minazuki didn’t move, just staring down at her, looking displeased and annoyed. She’d come to her senses enough to be able to try and fight him off with her free hand, but she hesitated. She was a bit bewildered by the look he was giving her, and she was starting to feel more curious than upset. After another moment of silence that was starting to feel less tense and more awkward, she spoke up. “...Y’know, I was lookin’ forward to seein’ ya again. Feeling ain’t mutual, I take it?”

Minazuki thought for a long moment before he spoke, in that same measured, patient way he always spoke. “...I have something that needs done, someone that needs to die, and at present, I don’t have a weapon that can handle the task. Thankfully, I knew where to find a military-grade experimental weapon I may be able to commandeer.”

“How many times do I gotta say I AIN’T YOUR GODDAMN WEAPON, MINAZUKI!” Labrys’ right arm shot up and delivered a punch straight to his lower jaw. She managed to get out from under his foot while he was reeling, only to end up with a sword pointed right at her chest, and right at her Plume. She went still again, but kept shouting in defiant anger. “The hell makes you think I’d ever play along with-”

The sword pulled back, and was thrust into her chest. She gasped. It had pierced halfway into the thick armor protecting her Plume. Just like that, the blade was inches away from her soul, and everything it contained. She suddenly felt very fragile. Everything she was protecting suddenly felt very fragile. It was jarring, just how afraid she was now, and just how quickly the fear had overcome her.

“Y-you…” Her voice was shaky. All of the defiant bluster had popped like a balloon when her chest had been pierced. “You ain’t gonna…” She was wide-eyed and stone-still, reeling from the whiplash and frozen in mortal terror.

Minazuki was silent, still with that ever-so-slightly frustrated look in his eyes. It was so cold and distant. There wasn’t the slightest trace of sympathy behind it. He was looking at her like he was doing a test, like he was running an experiment on her and was disappointed with the results. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at Labrys like this, like the overwhelming terror she was feeling as tears started to form in the corner of her eyes meant nothing to him, like it wasn’t real to him. He was looking at her with the dry irritation of someone dealing with a machine that wasn’t quite working right. What was left of her sisters was being held at knifepoint, and Minazuki looked on coldly, looking at her feelings as mere responses to stimuli to be recorded and noted, as mere inconvenient failures on a test of her performance.

She saw the Kirijo scientists’ eyes in Sho’s sockets. She was back there, in her mind, in a world without hope and without compassion, in a world of inescapable torture, where everyone saw her as an object and her suffering as not truly real, where she was going to be used to kill against her will. Part of her wanted to tear it all down. Part of her wanted to reach out and rip those eyes right out just to get that stare to stop. Part of her was boiling with a rage that wanted to break free of this pain and bring the world down around them in the process. 

That part of her took control of Labrys’ voice and screamed in blind fury. She took control of Labrys’ body, and a powerful yellow glow shone from her eyes.

Minazuki smiled just slightly and leapt back, putting some distance between himself and the Shadow he’d awakened. It seemed he had the result he wanted.

Shadow Labrys scrambled to her feet, seething with so much rage it was almost surprising she wasn’t glowing with an aura of power, even here in the real world.

The smile was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Minazuki spoke in that same quiet, measured tone. “You still exist,” He said simply. His swords were at the ready, but his stance was more defensive than aggressive.

“I’m going to kill you.” Shadow Labrys’ notably unaccented voice was quiet and deliberate, but shaky, uneven and twitchy, with a strange, distorted echo to it. “There’s nobody else here to scream in my ear about how _we should all be friends_ and how _killing people is wrong._ No one’s gonna save you, and I’m going to tear you limb from fucking limb.” The shakiness was almost glitchy, the voice synthesizer briefly clipping and cutting out every now and then. One would expect her to be breathing heavily, in this state, which made it all the more uncanny that she wasn’t breathing at all. “I’m gonna cave in your skull, first. I’m going to kill Sho first. Break your brain and leave your Plume intact for just long enough that you get to feel him fade.” She started to laugh, and the laugh built into a cackle. She was shouting now. “Everything you do is for him, right? You’re trying to grant his wishes, right? Does he have a deathwish? Does he? Ahahaha!”

Minazuki grimaced and braced himself as Shadow Labrys’ mad cackling filled the night air. He remained still. The shadow seemed to be waiting for some kind of response, surprised that she was getting basically nothing.   
“Well?” She screamed, using her remaining chain to grab her axe and pull it back to her. She flared its thrusters, and started advancing towards him. “What now? What the hell is your game? WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO ALL THAT, HUH? DO YOU HAVE NOTHING TO SAY TO ME NOW? WHAT WAS THE POINT, DAMMIT? WHY!?”

With every step and every flash of the axe’s rockets, it became more clear she was trying to intimidate an answer out of him more than she was trying to attack him. Seeing this, without moving from his defensive stance, he spoke. For the first time, his eyes trailed away from hers.

“You wished to be understood, did you not?” He was talking more slowly than normal, like he was thinking carefully about what to say. “And you believed it impossible.” 

“I don’t want to hear you TALK ABOUT ME LIKE YOU KNOW ME!” Shadow Labrys screamed. The axe came down on where Minazuki was standing. The strike cleaved through the roots of the tree and buried the axeblade into the ground three feet deep. He’d evaded, but the blow would’ve been fatal if he hadn’t.

Minazuki seemed just slightly thrown off and taken aback, although it was more like he’d lost his footing in the conversation than in the fight. He seemed unsure of himself, and of how to respond. He hesitated, struggling to figure out what to say, and it took him long enough that his opponent didn’t give him the chance.

“WHY AREN’T YOU FIGHTING BACK!?” A horizontal swing of Shadow Labrys’ axe missed her evasive foe by inches once again, and brought down an old tree in one swipe before it came to a stop. She could still be heard clearly over the sound of it crashing to the ground. “What, is it not fun anymore? Trying to prey on that weakling coward bitch just to get your kicks, but the second someone with some actual teeth steps up, it’s not _fun anymore_ because you’re not _winning,_ is that it?”

Minazuki looked genuinely distressed, taking a few more steps back with his brow furrowed, his eyes avoiding her, and his lips in an almost guilty grimace. Despite this, when he finally spoke, he spoke firmly. “I was looking for you in particular, Shadow. This is the only way I knew to find you, and that is all.”

It was quiet for a moment. He could practically see the spinning ‘buffering’ circles in Labrys’ eyes.

“Y-you-” Shadow Labrys was caught completely off guard, with a madly confused stare, her eyes all the way open, bewildered beyond belief and still completely furious. Her stuttering sounded much more natural now. “You just - You did _all that shit_ \- wha - why - What the hell do you want with _me_ , anyway!?” She was still shouting, but not quite with the same power as before. “And more importantly what in the high holy fuck is _wrong with you!?_ You think you can just do this shit to people just to- just to- Rrrrgh! God you’re an idiot! How broken are you!? _”_

It didn’t elude Minazuki that that last bit was Sho’s insult being repeated back at him. He seemed to almost be shrinking away, turning his head away just a bit more and letting his eyes wander just a bit farther, despite the fact that it wasn’t unlikely he’d be cleaved in half if he dropped his guard. This was going much worse than he’d expected. She was sort of right, too, how had he thought this would go?

“...You wouldn’t have simply come out if I had asked for you.” Minazuki offered. 

“You don’t know that!” The Shadow replied defensively. “Asking would’ve been a hell of a lot better a place to start than _this!_ ” She put her hand over the sparking wound in her chest. 

Minazuki’s eyes were fixed on the ground, but he kept his voice as firm and steady as he could, and his face took on a slightly bitter scowl. “You awoke in the Tower when your host was pushed to the brink. You had not awoken before in this form, and to my knowledge you have not awoken since. I was under the impression you needed the motivation. That is all.” 

Shadow Labrys was quiet for another long moment, just blankly staring, trying to come up with some way to respond to the stupidity she was witnessing.

In the end, she just scoffed, frustrated and at a loss for words.

Fed up, she looked away from him and finally went about reattaching her severed forearm, which was still clinging to the axehandle. Since it was only severed at the chain and it was otherwise meant to detach like that, it was simple enough to just stuff the broken chain back into her upper arm and lock the forearm back into place.

In the meantime, she’d finally come up with a few more words. “God, you’re a dumbass.”

Minazuki’s only reply was a simple “Mm.” He was still looking down at the ground, with his arms and swords hanging lazily at his sides.

Shadow Labrys sighed, folding up her axe and affixing it to its dock on her back, giving her the appearance of having wings. She walked over to the stump of the fallen tree and sat down. She rolled her yellow eyes dramatically, heaved a heavy sigh, and spoke with a rich sarcasm. “Alright, let’s hear it. What was so goddamn important that you had to go and prove robots could get PTSD just so you could talk about it? The other me’s going to be scared of her own shadow for the rest of the month.”  
  
“...Not me. You know what I mean.” She added.

Minazuki smiled just slightly at that.

The words caught in his throat a bit, and it took a moment for him to put together exactly what he wanted to say, and how he wanted to say it. Even then, it came out slowly, like he was second-guessing every word. “I… I have been having difficulty. I’ve been… Weak, and indecisive. I thought it might pass, given time, but it hasn’t.”

Shadow Labrys narrowed her eyes almost suspiciously, unsure where he was going with this, unsure whether she cared, and unsure if she wanted to sling an insult right now. But, she didn’t interrupt.

Minazuki sighed. “I thought about our encounter with you. I imagined there might be something about our situations that’s similar. I thought you might… have an answer that I don’t have. I thought you might, well.” He paused, looking off to the side. “I don’t think you care to understand me, and I don’t think you can. But I thought you might understand this issue in particular better than anyone else.”

“Are you gonna get to the point? Spit it out already, jeez.” Shadow Labrys leaned back and groaned. “Figures I need to deal with this shit...”

Minazuki did grimace just slightly, but he didn’t seem too discouraged. He was used to dealing with this kind of person. It came off as honest, in a way, and it almost made her easier to trust.

It still took him another long moment to put some more words together, though.

“...Are you… Content with your place in life, Shadow? As a part of your… Other you, as it were?”

The Shadow looked him straight in the eyes and gave him another narrow-eyed glare, but it wasn’t a hostile one. She looked tired. Part of it was just that she was getting tired of putting up with him even _before_ the incredibly loaded question, but also…

She looked like she wanted to say something, but she hesitated, and decided against it.

“Piss off. You’re not my goddamn shrink.”

“Do you see a therapist?” Minazuki asked like he really didn’t know.  
  
“No.”

“Hm.” Minazuki grimaced. This was going nowhere.

But this was at least more tolerable than talking to Narukami.

Another pause. Minazuki decided he may as well sit down too, resting his back against the trunk of a still-standing tree. Shadow Labrys was quiet, too. Thinking, maybe.

Minazuki traced some lines in the dirt with one of his swords.

It was probably on him to make this go somewhere, wasn’t it. He sighed.

He gave talking another try. “...I was content. Not… Not with life, but with my role. I was content to help him. I was content to be the one who grants that boy’s wishes.” He trailed off. Talking like this was difficult.

“You _were_ content, ‘till it hit you just how much of a goddamn failure you are.” Shadow Labrys said suddenly, making Minazuki flinch. “And not just because you failed to ‘grant his wish’, but because the wish was so completely idiotic in the first place that just going along with it was a failure. You failed so hard that the only reason everything’s even kind of okay is because your two failures cancelled eachother out.”

Her words were cutting, but her tone was more-or-less calm. She was saying it not as an insult - well, at least, not entirely - but as an observation. Hearing it out loud definitely made Minazuki wince, but he was also glad. She seemed to understand after all. And, she’d saved him the trouble of having to say all that himself.

“...Yes.” He sighed. “That’s correct.”

He heard a chuckle in response. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

It was quiet for another long moment. With a sigh, Shadow Labrys looked up at the sky, tapping her fingertips on the stump and idly shaking her leg. 

The stars were beautiful tonight. One of the nice things about being in the outskirts of a small town in the middle of nowhere.

The Shadow sighed, firing her good arm up towards the sky and reeling it back into place, like she was tossing a ball in the air and catching it. She didn’t seem to like all this sitting still.

She groaned. “Come on, hurry it up already, you’re killing me. Dragging me all the way out here just so you can sit over there and sulk...” With another sigh and a roll of her eyes, she locked her arm back into place again and stood back up, taking a moment to stretch. Minazuki wondered if that even did anything for her.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. 

He opened his mouth to speak, and hesitated.

It took another moment, but he finally managed to spit something out. “...What do you think you would have done if you had failed, in the tower? If Sho had beaten you? If that girl had been used as a weapon and forced to kill again, despite all your best efforts?”

The ground shook, and he opened his eyes again. With a frustrated shout, Shadow Labrys had brought her axe to bear again, splitting the fallen tree in two. “What the hell do you think gives you the right to ask me shit like that?” She didn’t even look in his direction, instead chopping another piece off the fallen log. It only took one swing each time. She was scowling bitterly down at the wood. “Waste of my goddamn time. Waste of my _god_ damn time. Only time I’ve gotten in months and I’m wasting it on this shit.” She mumbled mostly to herself.

Minazuki cursed himself, matching her scowl with one of his own, directed inward. Trying to talk about these things left him feeling weak and humiliated, so he kept asking the questions he himself wanted to answer, hoping to pass the burden of humiliation off to her so he could speak more easily. She wasn’t playing ball, though. All he was achieving was trying her patience.

This was so infuriatingly difficult. Dealing with people was so infuriatingly difficult. Even this one, this one who spoke so similarly to Sho, and lived in a situation so similar to his own. It was still infuriating. 

He asked himself why he was even bothering with this. 

He reminded himself that she might have an insight he couldn’t come to on his own. He was lost, hopelessly, he had been for months, nothing had changed, and he needed directions.

What an awful situation he was in, that dealing with another person in a conversation like this was somehow more palatable than the alternative.

Shadow Labrys continued with her angry log-chopping.

Minazuki briefly entertained the thought of killing her once this was over to erase all traces of his humiliation. It was a comforting idea, enough to get him to start talking.

“...When I was faced with the fact that, well… That I was an abject failure at the singular purpose of my existence.” He took another steadying breath. “I thought all my efforts pointless, and I stopped.”

Shadow Labrys stopped chopping.

He continued. “I stopped communicating with Sho. I stopped thinking, as best I could. For two weeks, I did not once make myself known to anyone, even to him. He believed me to be gone, and I was glad. I thought it was for the best.”

He was slouching, sitting there in the darkness under the tree, with his arms resting on his knees. His eyes were firmly fixed on the ground.

“I had always thought myself to be smarter than him. I thought that I understood the world better, that I knew what was best for him. I thought I could guide him, and that my guidance would save him, and my guidance would allow him happiness. He thought the same, and his trust in me was unfaltering. And I failed.”

He put a single hand on his forehead. 

“He wished for me to come back. So I’m here. But I can’t help him.”

His voice had a still, icy, detached tone to it. It was getting quieter, more faint, like all the emotion and all the energy was leaving it, and it was hollow.

“I led him right into the jaws of death. I almost killed him with my arrogance. Because I am every bit as blind and clueless as he is. I don’t know what’s right, I don’t know what’s best, I don’t know how to help, I don’t know what to do. I’ll just get him hurt again. I’ll just make everything worse for him again. I’m the last thing he needs.”

He was starting to not even sound like himself.

Another silence fell.

Shadow Labrys looked down at the boy who was almost curling up in front of her, deaf to the world around him, vulnerable like he’d never been in his life.

She set her axe down and sighed.

“So,” She spoke up in a calm, quiet tone that still made Minazuki flinch with how loud and sudden it felt against the silence. “You’re asking me what I do. Why I’m satisfied with what I’ve got going in here, and how I help the other me.”

Minazuki nodded slightly.

She dropped onto her back and laid down on the grass, folding her arms behind her head and crossing her legs. “I don’t do shit, there’s your answer.”

Minazuki clenched his teeth, closed his hands into tight fists and groaned. He did all that talking just for this. Maybe he would kill her.

She smiled, just slightly. She wasn’t exactly upset to see him pissed off. “She takes care of herself just fine. I’m not gonna say I’m entirely satisfied, but she is me, and she’s free, and she’s happy. All we ever wanted. I don’t need to do shit.” She sounded a little bit sarcastic, and it was hard to tell if she actually was, or if that was just her normal tone of voice. “When I show up, it’s ‘cause she gets all sad and panicky when she should be getting angry. Anger’s a hell of a lot better for self-defense than shutting down and crying like a bitch.”

“Do you have anything useful to say, Shadow?” There was a familiar bitter venom in Minazuki’s voice. He still hadn’t really moved, though. He was still more-or-less curled up on the ground, and his face was still hidden. 

Shadow Labrys chuckled in response. “You’re the one pestering me, asshole. Now you’re gonna bitch about _me_ getting on _your_ nerves?” 

Minazuki groaned. She didn’t understand a single thing about him after all, did she.

“Alright, look.” The Shadow sat up again, trying to find Minazuki’s eyes. He was still hiding them. She sighed. “You want advice? If you’re so godawful at the one thing you do, either get good or find a new thing.”

She laid back down again before adding, “Dumbass.”

Minazuki didn’t respond. He went quiet. The tension in his fists eased, at least.

For another long while, it was silent.

For the time being, it didn’t feel like a good idea to speak up again. Seemed like he was actually taking what she’d said seriously, and taking time to properly think about it. 

It didn’t take her long to get bored of laying still and being quiet, though. She got back on her feet, picked up the axe again, and went back to chopping some wood.

Minazuki still didn’t say anything, which was just as well. Maybe he’d gotten everything he’d needed, and he’d leave her alone. 

After a few minutes, Shadow Labrys had a good pile of firewood made. 

She snapped off some branches to use as kindling, and started to dig a little pit in the ground. She didn’t have much other than her bare hands to work with for digging, but that was fine.

It had been quiet for long enough. All this quiet time to think was giving her a lot more to say.

“It’s not like I’m still doing the same thing I started out doing. I was pretty shit at that whole ‘become the one real Labrys and kill everyone’ thing.” She chuckled, and shook her head.

Minazuki said nothing, so she continued. “Had a few days to think about shit after I ended up in her body. Couldn’t really do anything else but think. Not like I can just take over any time I want. And I’m seeing her be happy in her new life, and I’m thinking, why the hell did I want to do any of that in the first place? Those Kirijo freaks made me kill everyone I fucking cared about. I couldn’t escape no matter what I fucking did. I wasn’t allowed to be happy. Now the other me’s free and living the good life, and I’m wanting to kill all the new people she found to care about and lock her up in her own body? What the hell kind of hypocrite bullshit am I on?”

The makeshift firepit seemed big enough by now, so she started stacking the kindling.

“So I realize, I don’t really like killing. Well, I mean, I do. But it’s not really the killing that I like. I’m not interested in seeing people die.” She shrugged, and chuckled just a bit. “Want to know what I do like? I like control. I like power. I like feeling like nobody can lay a goddamn finger on me. I like feeling like nobody can stop me from going where I want and doing what I want. I like feeling that I’m completely free because there’s nothing on this pathetic earth that can stand in my way. I like feeling like me being helpless and trapped and at anyone’s mercy is a distant fucking memory. And the idea of tearing the life out of someone just because I _want_ to is so… good, you know? It’s all of that and more.” She was gesturing animatedly as she talked, and the amount of passion in her voice while she talked about this would probably be highly off-putting to the average person.

Faintly, quietly, Minazuki chuckled just a bit. His posture relaxed, and he lowered his hands, although he was still hanging his head too low for her to see his face. 

“Yeah, see, you get me.” She continued, with a hint of a genuine smile. 

She was starting to realize why he had come to her to talk. She couldn’t have told this to any one of Labrys’ friends. Labrys knew, to a degree - the part of her the Shadow was born from was the same way, after all - but talking to her about it in detail seemed like a bad idea. Minazuki couldn’t really understand Shadow Labrys perfectly, but he understood just enough, he was just similar enough to her that she could be honest with him without worrying. It actually felt nice to be getting this off her chest.

She used one of the rocket thrusters on her axe to light the fire. The flame was roaring in no time. It almost seemed like cheating.

“But, there’s other ways to get that good feeling.” She continued, docking her axe again and watching the fire start to burn. “Better ways. For all the reasons I like killing, I’ve got a lot of reasons to hate it, too. Mostly that I don’t want to be like those bastards that did this shit to me and my sisters.”

She sat down and crossed her legs. “So, killing innocents isn’t my thing anymore. Of course, if someone has it coming…” She laughed. It sounded a little more relaxed than her usual evil cackle. “You know, I’m still kinda sad you managed to convince me you don’t have it coming! That’s twice now I got all excited to tear you to pieces and I got nothing!”

She shrugged, with a dumb smirk on her face.

Minazuki finally looked up at her, wearing a much more subtle smirk that was still every bit as smug. “Yes, what a shame, that you missed out on the chance to be put in your place. But I was under the impression you wanted to avoid being helpless?”

He was met with a raucous laugh. “Kiss my ass, you little freak.”

The two of them shared something akin to a good-natured smile. Minazuki still looked weak and tired, but not quite as much as before. 

Shadow Labrys threw some more wood on the fire. It was starting to build. Minazuki wasn’t the type to complain about small discomforts like the cold night air, but he’d been out for a while, and the warmth of their little campfire was very welcome. He sat up a bit more straight and reached out to warm his hands. 

“So, got a plan yet?” She asked. The cold wasn’t uncomfortable to her at all, but she seemed to like watching the flames dance. She wasn’t fidgeting quite as much anymore.

Minazuki just shrugged, still wearing a bit of a half-smile. “It’s clear to me I’d rather ‘get good’ than find a new purpose. What that entails, I’m not quite sure yet.”

The Shadow stuck a branch into the fire to watch the leaves burn. “Well, you’re not gonna find the answer in your own head. We’ve already established nothing in there is worth shit.” She smirked. “Tell Sho I said hi.”

“He says ‘Shut the hell up, you goddamn glitch. Nobody axed for your opinion.’” Somehow Minazuki’s impression of Sho was terrible.

She rolled her eyes, smirked, and flipped Sho off.

Minazuki chuckled, and sighed. “So you’re saying I need to keep looking to people that know more than I do.” He put his hand on his forehead. “Joy.”

“Or you could pick up a book, you idiot.” Shadow Labrys leaned back with her hands behind her head. “No, seriously, go to a library or some shit. Teach yourself, if you don’t want to be lectured and patronized.”

“Hm.” Minazuki nodded. "...I haven't looked into anything of that sort, yet."

"Well, if you do go, keep the little bastard under lock and key. I get the feeling Sho'll get you thrown out if you so much as let him breathe."

"It would hardly be the first time." Minazuki shook his head and chuckled.

* * *

The conversation trailed off, and the two went quiet for a while. There wasn’t much more to say. It was enough to just sit by the fire, keep warm and watch the flames dance.

They found it wasn’t uncomfortable, being in eachother’s presence like this for an evening. Around most people, there would’ve been something bothering them by now. But this was fine.

So, it wasn’t discomfort or annoyance that led to Minazuki rising to his feet, dusting himself off, sheathing his swords and turning to leave. The night had simply gone on for long enough.

Shadow Labrys called out to him one last time before he left. “Hey, next time you want to get in touch, for the love of god, just ask Labrys, okay? You pull this shit again and I’ll give you one of these to match.” She gestured at her chest wound, which emitted some sparks to help her argument.

Minazuki smirked. “It’ll be a fair fight next time. And you’ll come away from it all the worse for it.”

He started to walk away, but paused again. It was the higher, slightly nasally voice of Sho that spoke up, this time.  
  
“...Well, shit, he’s actually in a good mood. You actually did a half-decent job, for a piece of goddamn malware.” Sho chuckled. “Not too shabby, Shabrys.”

He vanished, leaving behind him the sound of ‘Shabrys’ groaning at the pun.

* * *

She carelessly flopped onto the futon back in her room at the inn, and her eyes finally lost their eerie yellow glow, turning back to their usual red as Labrys finally woke up again. She blinked a few times, held her hands out in front of her face and moved her fingers, just to make sure she was really back to normal. Having no control over her own body for so long was never going to be a comfortable experience.

But this hadn’t been so bad.

Labrys rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, trying to process everything she’d just overheard. 

She couldn’t help but smile a bit. It was all oddly comforting. Her Shadow was still with her, still a part of her, and still looking out for her, after all this time. Labrys had been right all along, when she realized all those months ago that her Shadow self’s command over a Persona must have meant that the Shadow had come to better understand herself, and was more at peace with herself. It was a wonderful thing to see. 

Sho-kun was still doing okay, too. They all knew it would be a slow process, getting him to open up and join the normal world with the rest of them. But they couldn’t help but worry. After all this time with no news, everyone was starting to suspect he might have fallen back into his old ‘habits’. But just as they’d hoped, he was still trying. His bond with Minazuki was alive and well, and it was building into something healthier for both of them.

It had been a melancholy night, but she felt oddly refreshed. Her head felt clear and calm, and she felt optimistic about both her future and Sho’s.

There was still one thing left to do, though.

“Hey, Shabby. Still awake in there? Mind if I call ya Shabby?” She spoke aloud to the other presence in her head.

_Is that becoming a thing now... It’s less of a mouthful, I guess. Sure, whatever. What is it?_

“Well, I was just thinkin’. You don’t get a lot of time to yourself, do you.”

_What are you getting at?_

“Weeeeell, I’m gonna have to head home from the trip early, seein’ as I gotta get this chest wound patched up and all that. And I’m hearin’ you go on about how you like doin’ stuff that makes you feel free, right?”

 _...Yeah?_

“...How’d you like to fly us back to HQ? We got enough fuel to get the whole way with just our rockets.”

_That’s… You know what, that’s not a bad idea. Course, you give me the keys, and it’s gonna be a joyride. You know that, right?_

Labrys laughed. “We’re going for repairs anyway, ain’t we? No harm done if you scratch up the chassis a bit, go wild!”

The yellow glow shone in her eyes again, and the Shadow cackled.

“Don’t bitch at me if you end up regretting this.” She grinned, stepping out into the cool night air again.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing fanfic in a long time, so hopefully it turned out okay!
> 
> It always seemed like a shame to me that not a lot was really done with Shadow Labrys showing up as a more-or-less benevolent split personality, especially when Minazuki was around. I was curious what their dynamic would be like, so I threw this together.
> 
> Let me know what you guys think, I might do more with Shadow Labrys and some other characters in the future!


End file.
